Merc1

What? No original LS400 in the top 10 Bruce???

M

Bruce

Lol. Give me a break...

It was hard enough picking a top ten without mentioning an additional ten below.

P.S. - I've forgotten the Ford GT... which is a sin to forget.

martinbo

An almost impossible task. I'm so tempted to pull one of those exotics vs. people's cars separation stunts again to make my life easier. Nay - I'll put my money where my mouth is for this one.

1. Mercedes Benz W124. The ultimate in representing progress without detracting from core values. Here was a car so good that if you bought anything else for more you'd be soft in the head. The best car in the world in its day.

2. VW Golf GTi. No other car in the history of motoring spawned more copycat competitors. Its concept resulted in one of the coolest things to happen to budget conscious car enthusiasts: the definitive hot hatch.

3. Toyota Corolla. When to most people a car is just a box that gets you from a to b, no car did this as reliably in such massive numbers.

4. The McLaren F1. Hypercar excess without the vulgarity. The McLaren isn't just a great car for its astonishing dynamic ability that sees it acquiting itself with the very best current cars in terms of outright performance, it more over represents the spirit of unrelenting pursuit of meticulous engineering and unwavering attention to detail. The F1 proves that even if form did follow function, that form could still turn out utterly gorgeous.

5. Range Rover. In its day it was one of the most beautifully styled vehicles on the road. Period. Furthermore, it was formiddable off-road and combined truly robust capability with luxury, coolness and charisma.

6. Porsche 996 Turbo. The world's first everyday, all-weather supercar. Enough said.

7. E36 BMW M3. The M3 that really started it all, gone was the bare-bones, thrashy little E30 boy racer; the E36 M3 ushered in a whole new era of supercar-like performance with the comfort and luxury of a grand tourer condensed in a half-price sports coupe. Its 210 kW, straight six S50 engine was so good that it was half of the success behind the McLaren F1's engine; the other half being another S50 engine!

8. Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Seldom do we see such devastating performance, driver excitement and solid reliability in a car costing this little. The STI delivers near supercar-like performance for a third of the price. If getting from a to b is a pre-requisite then the STI delivers in spades.

9. Toyota Hi-Ace. The answer to third world countries' public transport woes. The Hi-Ace may be the most unglamorous car ever to be mentioned in such a thread but the fact remains; entire economies would not be where they are now if it wasn't for this ubiquitous people mover.

10. Mazda MX-5. Singlehandedly resurrected Planet Earth's love for affordable, fun-to-drive, little roadsters.